China’s ‘Big Three’ see passenger traffic drop for first time in months

After consecutive months of steady recovery, China’s three largest carriers reported their first domestic traffic slump in November — the first in more than half a year, with at least one carrier blaming a resurgence in domestic coronavirus cases for the decline. The ‘Big Three’ — comprising Air China, China Eastern and China Southern — all saw domestic passenger numbers and capacity shrink month on month, with some falling below pre-pandemic numbers. Though it claims to have kept the pandemic under control, China has in recent weeks seen a slight uptick in cases, the bulk of them imported cases, though there have been instances of locally-transmitted cases in a number of provinces. Air China carried 7.47m domestic passengers for the month, a 10.8% decline month on month, and a 1.5% drop year on year. Domestic RPKs for the month saw a 9.9% month-on-month decline, while ASKs fell 6.6% compared to October. Year on year, it represented a 1.6% decline, and a 8.5% uptick, respectively. Domestic passenger load factor for the month shrank 2.7 percentage points from October, to 73.4%. November’s month-on-month slump in passenger traffic is the first since April, when Beijing, where Air China is based, experienced a surge in coronavirus cases. Story has details of other carriers.<br/>